Week 7: The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman (5)

 So I never read The Golden Compass as a child, nor any of the other book in the His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman. Didn’t even see the movie. So going into this expecting nothing but the usual children’s fantasy fair, I was caught off guard by the teeth of this story. 

For example, even this book’s contemporary series, Harry Potter doesn’t have a main character that’s anything more than a (sassy) neutral influence. Harry is not the most proactive main character, which is all well and fine, and in the later books there is even a time where he recognizes and resents what his blind faith and pacifism has lead to, in his life being manipulated and directed without his knowledge or consent. Until that point, Harry Potter only really slightly indicates that adults have agendas of their own about and for children, and that unless outright mean and abusive to the child, adults should implicitly be in charge. The most Harry usually does is give lip before doing as told. It’s comparatively complacent to Pullman’s work. It separates children from their own agency, which to be honest is something I could certainly have used more of as a child myself. Definitely regret not reading this as a kid.

We don’t see that kind of treatment in The Golden Compass. Lyra is the most self-possessed thing anyone in the book has ever seen and everything is all the better for it. I greatly appreciate that Pullman doesn’t put down agency and the ability to act on it as something someone comes into only as they grow older. Pullman doesn’t use a child’s innocence as an ignorance crutch where an adult must come in - he makes it the key to Lyra’s ability to see things, uncluttered, for what they actually are. Lyra isn’t bubbled and hidden away from things affecting her after she gets involved, after actively getting herself involved, not like Harry is in order to ‘preserve his innocence.’ Meanwhile, Lyra is an eleven year old arsonist who freed anywhere between fifty to eighty children from an illegal arctic laboratory on her own after being ambushed and captured. 

Pullman in no way falls into the trap of making good and evil as simple and ‘obvious’ as most children’s books tend to, as I got the sense more so that Lyra was always thinking and taking points into consideration before coming to a decision. A child reading through this would be exercising critical thinking muscles right along side Lyra in a way I as an older reader already have, and I appreciate that. I understand that Pullman and Rowling had separate lessons and methods to impart said lessons through their books and that that makes them fundamentally impossible to compare equally, but these two series are peers, so. 

I think the main difference boils down to how they utilized the main character perspective - anyone could be Harry, the down beaten boy who just wants friends and normalcy and a loving family; everyone wants to be Lyra, strong and able and likable, going on grand adventures because she is not only needed but wanted. Those are vastly different immersion methods and the subsequent stories reflect such. I appreciate The Golden Compass as much as I do though, because I like that it doesn’t try to sugar coat things from a child’s perspective for children reading it, while also giving children readers someone to look to for solutions or confidence should they have similar troubles in their lives, the actual dangers of being a child and being away from protective, watchful eyes.


Edit: okay, so a friend of mine who did read the whole series growing up told me about what happens in book three and....why? Just, why? That's kinda, exactly, what those pearl-clutching housewives were protesting Rowling for. Pullman, your publisher cleared that? Your editor really let you get away with implying two twelve year olds had sex and it's a good thing because of how much you personally hate Christianity? Nope, sorry, I'm squicked and am just going say the series ended here, with the implication being Lyra is off having fabulous adventures and being all kinds of awesome with Pantalaimon.

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